35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:“For your sake we face death all day long;we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8: 35-39

PopeWatch heartily endorses the choice by Pope Francis of Albanian priest Father Ernest Troshani Simoni, 88, for a red cap:

In 1948, Communists shot and killed Fr. Simoni’s Franciscan superiors. He continued his studies in secret and was later ordained a priest.

Four years later, Communist leaders gathered together priests who had survived and offered them freedom if they distanced themselves from the Pope and the Vatican. Fr. Simoni and his brother priests refused.

On Dec. 14, (sic, December 24) 1963, as he was concluding Christmas Eve Mass, four officials served him an arrest warrant and decree of execution. He was handcuffed and detained. During interrogation, they told him he would hanged as an enemy because he told the people, “We will all die for Christ if necessary.”

He suffered immense torturing, but said “the Lord wanted me to keep living.”

“Divine Providence willed that my death sentence not be carried out right away. They brought another prisoner into the room, a dear friend of mine, in order to spy on me. He began to speak out against the party,” Fr. Simoni recalled.

“I responded anyway that Christ had taught us to love our enemies and to forgive them and that we should strive to seek the good of the people. Those words reached the ears of the dictator who, a few days later, freed me from my death sentence,” he explained.

The priest was given 28 years of forced labor instead, during which time he celebrated Mass, heard confessions and distributed Communion in secret.

Fr. Simoni was released only when the Communist regime fell and freedom of religion was recognized.

“The Lord has helped me to serve so many peoples and to reconcile many, driving out hatred and the devil from the hearts of men,” he said.

“Your Holiness, with the certainty that I am expressing the intentions of those present, I pray through the intercession of the most holy Mother of Christ, that the Lord grant you life, health and strength in guiding the great flock that is the Church of Christ, Amen.”

After concluding his remarks, a visibly moved Pope Francis dried the tears in his own eyes and embraced the Albanian priest.

Go here to read the rest. It is easy to become cynical viewing the Church day to day with a magnifying glass. Then a man like this new Cardinal comes along and we see why the Church has endured 2000 years.

Why a typo? Or why delete?
1) Can’t answer why a typo, other than to point out that December 14 is NOT Christmas Eve
2) Why delete? Why not? I never understand why some of us feel a need to bare all about simple mistakes. Imagine a book in it’s 23rd printing, and imagine every error found is never corrected, and the errata page becomes a chapter. That’s just dumb. Would not this article be more readable without the [sic] comment it now has? Also, I don’t need any credit for being the Big Typo Finder, nor do I deserve it, since I make enough of them on my own.